(Original post by FredOrJohn)
what would the point of that be?
That is basically being in the EU but without a say.

That is the worst of all options.

For me its the EU or I'm not bothered, I'll just apply for Irish passport (Grandparents)

Educate yourself that option solves the single market issue, sovereignty issue, democracy issue, trade deals outside the European Union done by us, allows none Eu exporting companies not to have to adhere to eu regulations which is over 95% of companies. Allows us control of taxation and even has an emergency brake when levels of Eu migration is too high.

The price is we still have to pay a fee, we lose our 9% of voting power but anytime we have opposed anything we have lost anyway and we still have a form of free movement.

(Original post by paul514)
Educate yourself that option solves the single market issue, sovereignty issue, democracy issue, trade deals outside the European Union done by us, allows none Eu exporting companies not to have to adhere to eu regulations which is over 95% of companies. Allows us control of taxation and even has an emergency brake when levels of Eu migration is too high.

The price is we still have to pay a fee, we lose our 9% of voting power but anytime we have opposed anything we have lost anyway and we still have a form of free movement.

Get an education

EEA members have to apply all the single market legislation to their domestic markets as well so this affects all firms whether or not they export because the single market rules apply to the domestic economy if you're in the EEA. The EU employment law will apply to all UK firms, competition and state aid rules, consumer policy, health and safety at work legislation, social policy, company law, gender equality law, climate and energy policy etc - all has to be applied in full across the UK ec

The parts that don't apply to EEA members are: agricultural policy, fisheries policy, justice and home affairs (UK had some opt outs in this anyway though), foreign policy and external trade.

In the EEA you get to strike your own trade deals and have a free trade agreement with the EU but that means exporters have to satisfy Rules of Origin checks when they export to the EU (basically to stop outside countries exploiting a loophole if the EEA member has a lower tariff than the EU common tariff, and trying to export there and then get it shipped on directly to the EU).

The emergency brake that EEA countries have is pretty weak - its basically to bring the EU to the negotiating table. It's a temporary brake that then has to be discussed with the EU but the European Commission has final say on it.

(Original post by paul514)
Educate yourself that option solves the single market issue, sovereignty issue, democracy issue, trade deals outside the European Union done by us, allows none Eu exporting companies not to have to adhere to eu regulations which is over 95% of companies. Allows us control of taxation and even has an emergency brake when levels of Eu migration is too high.

The price is we still have to pay a fee, we lose our 9% of voting power but anytime we have opposed anything we have lost anyway and we still have a form of free movement.

It isn't needed, one can still trade with the EU and the rest of Europe without being in the single market.

Might as well withdraw from it as you will still need to pay to access the single market, I much rather we followed WTO rules and let the markets decide if our products are good enough for import duties.

The only thing I could foresee being an issue is whether the financial services industry could survive without full access but then rules are made to be broken